Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓
Oyster Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, combine oyster liquor, sweet milk, wheat flour, chopped oysters, eggs, and salt. Mix until well combined.
Fry
Heat lard in a pan over medium-high heat.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot lard.
Fry until golden brown on both sides.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,418 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,373 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Oyster + eggtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,103 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Wheat flour
- Provides the starch and gluten that give the cakes their body and hold them together.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and set during frying, giving the cakes structure.
- Sweet milk
- Adds moisture and softness to the batter, loosening it into a spoonable consistency.
- Oysters
- Supply the main savory flavor and tender bits throughout the cakes.
The step that matters
Frying in hot lard. The lard must be hot enough when the batter goes in so the outside sets and browns quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes absorb fat, turn greasy, and may fall apart before they set.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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